PAYNE'S GRAY

— First review of this album —

"Of Tyrants and Reflections" is the first dmeo recording by German progressive metal act Payne´s Grey. The demo was independently released in April 1990. Payne´s Grey formed in 1988 in the city of Karlsruhe and were active in the early- to mid-90s, releasing two demos and the 1995 debut full-length studio album "Kadath Decoded". They subsequently toured with among others Psychotic Waltz.

Stylistically early Psychotic Waltz actially isn´t the worst reference, but it´s predominantly early Fates Warning with the occasional nod towards late 80s Helloween that I´m mostly reminded of. So Payne´s Grey hit the sound somewhere between the more technical power metal of the 80s and the early progressive metal of the late 80s/early 90s.

"Of Tyrants and Reflections" features four tracks and total playing time of 18.10 minutes and it´s a demo featuring a decent but not great sound quality. The band are well playing but lead vocalist Hagen Schmidt sounds terribly strained delivering what is mostly very high pitched vocals. He is not without skills, but he needs a better sound production to help his vocals shine, and maybe a bit more vocal training too.

When that is said "Of Tyrants and Reflections" is otherwise a treat for fans of the genre, and had the vocals been less forced and strained sounding, this would have been a great demo. I still hear a lot of promise and high level instrumental performances, but I´m afraid the vocals ruin the listening experience and make the demo a bit of a chore to get through. A 2 star (40%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

"Infinity" is the second demo release by German progressive metal act Payne´s Grey. The demo was independently released in 1991. It follows the release of the April 1990 "Of Tyrants and Reflections" demo. Payne´s Grey formed in 1988 in the city of Karlsruhe and were active in the early- to mid-90s, releasing two demos and the 1995 debut full-length studio album "Kadath Decoded". They subsequently toured with among others Psychotic Waltz.

Stylistically the material on the 5 tracks, 31:55 minutes long demo is a more pure form of progressive metal compared to the slightly more power metal leaning progressive metal of the first demo. The addition of keyboard player Tomek Turek has had a great impact on the sound of Payne´s Grey. While lead vocalist Hagen Schmidt has a tendency to sing in a higher pitch than his voice and abilities allow him to, his vocals are generally much better sounding than on the first demo, which was more or less ruined by his strained vocal performance. He varies his vocal range more on "Infinity" too, which is great for the diversity of the material. The compositions are overall of a good quality with the symphonic keyboards providing a both epic and orchestral element.

It´s not a perfect demo and the sound production could have been much more powerful, defined, and detailed, but it´s decent enough considering that "Infinity" is a demo release. There´s loads of promise here and Payne´s Grey show great progression from the first demo and a taste of what they would become a few years down the line. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

"Kadath Decoded" is the debut full-length studio album by German progrssive metal act Payne´s Grey. The album was independently released in 1995. Payne´s Grey formed in 1988 in the city of Karlsruhe and were active in the early- to mid-90s, releasing two demos (one in 1990 and another in 1991) and this debut full-length studio album. Since the release of the 1991 "Infinity" demo Haluk Balikci has been added as a second lead vocalist. Two male vocalists made Payne´s Grey stand out on the 90s progressive metal scene, but although they managed to tour with Psychotic Waltz as support act on the latter´s 1996 European tour supporting their "Bleeding" (1995) album, they never got a real breakthrough, and they are more or less just a cult band/footnote in progressive metal history. "Kadath Decoded" would be their sole studio album in their original run.

Cult bands/footnote artists don´t necessarily have to be poor artists though, and Payne´s Grey certainly have a lot to offer to fans of 90s progressive metal. "Kadath Decoded" features 12 tracks and total playing time of 67:19 minutes, so it´s quite a long release. It´s a concept album build on the H. P. Lovecraft novella "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" (originally written by Lovecraft in 1926/1927 but only posthumously published by Arkham House in 1943). It´s a story of a nightmarish dream realm, and Payne´s Grey successfully capture the abstract occultist/monster horror of Lovecraft.

Keyboard player Tomek Turek is obviously an incredibly skilled musician and a lot of the music is based on his playing and musical ideas. The rest of the band are well playing too, but considering that "Kadath Decoded" is a progressive metal album, it´s a more dark and atmospheric release than a heavy and sharp metal ditto. It´s a higly dynamic release featuring both loud epic sections and more subtle atmospheric sections. In addition to the omnipresent keyboards, the music features guitars, bass, and drums, but also the occasional use of flute (played by guitarist Jan Schröder). The two vocalists sing a lot of harmony vocals, but also deliver their own parts. They have very similar voices though, which is a bit of a shame as two more different sounding vocalists could probably have made the vocal part of the music more varied and interesting. To my ears it´s a missed opportunity. It´s not that the music requires a beauty/beast type of vocal delivery, but two different sounding voices could have created another dynamic and provided the music with an exciting dimension. When that is said the vocals are generally well performed in typical high pitched power/progressive metal style.

"Kadath Decoded" features a decent quality sound production, although it lacks a bit of punch and heaviness. You can hear all details though and as mentioned above it´s just not the most heavy and metal oriented progressive metal release out there. The emphasis is on the arrangements (dominanted by the keyboards) and the dark atmospheres. Upon conclusion "Kadath Decoded" is a highly unique progressive metal album from the 90s. It´s not that you haven´t heard all the elements used before on other releases from other artists, but Payne´s Grey manage to use those elements and create something which doesn´t really sound like anything else. I´m sure with more experience and more albums under their belts, that Payne´s Grey could have gone on to greatness, but as "Kadath Decoded" ended up being their sole album release, that obviously wasn´t to be. They left behind a pretty interesting release though and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Nice Prog-Metal with unusually agressive drums (2 bass-drums from hell!) and average vocalist. Very much collector's item, musically close to DREAM THEATER's "WDADU" , FATES WARNING and sometimes Power Metal.All songs (except for the last one - bonus from 1998) are complex and vary in moods and themes changes ("Crystal Palace" opens with pretty catchy riff, btw). Not a Must-Have for sure even for a Prog-Metal devotee, but it has some enjoyable bits

4.5 stars - a really interesting album. It's symphonic neo prog with a metal edge. Very melodic, and the metal aspect is reduced to a few riffs here and there which blend perfectly with the lush symphonic songs. The whole thing is very concept driven, it gets quite quirky and technical at times, but never too flashy. The only things that keep me from awarding 5 stars are a few recording glitches (background noise/sudden eq changes) and some small inaccuracies in the drumming - but I'm a bit touchy in that area, so it should be no problem for most people.

Sadly the band broke up after recording this album, and it's nearly impossible to find in CD stores today (2006). Definitely a very valuable and rewarding part of any prog collection!

masterpiece yes !!!!a great moment with the kadath recorded!!!hummm an amazing emotion with this band ,a strong music with technical guy's.....OOOOh i love so much!! not conventionnal it's a magical voyage sometimes scaring but very very original......i recommended for somebody who search a new way to see prog music!!!! yeahhhhh

Quite a remarkable exercise by this proposing German band. "Kadath" is a rare and unique piece of work that certainly takes off pretty intriguing and devouring that there's nothing the listener could do, but to get captured in between this dark, evoking music. Opening track "Dream Sequence" instrumentally reveals such an enigmatic passage to indescribable musical experimentations, so impregnated of mysticism, of sorrow and peacefulness that irradiates geniality. The three-way conversation held by this sober piano, a lingering flute and the background chords set, is absolutely a display of energy and passion, so imperceptible by the common ear, it secretly lightens a pathway to welcome the second intromission of this well elaborated album. "Sunset City" is quite a sequel to the first act previously shown, with another continuous piano interlude, this time seconded by a peculiar acoustic guitar that meddles somewhere in between the synthies and this unpretentious bass played quietly by Martin MANNHARDT. The acoustic guitar carries on spreading the pure essence of the ambiance created, where the percussions become more and more captivating, wrapped up in shades of strings and compassed chords.

The vicious crunchy guitars aren't displayed until you get to "The Cavern of Flames", where Haluk BALIKCI sings impetuously the provocative story of chapter three contained on this album. The challenging, defining moments of this latter half of the nineties creation, start to reveal onward. It is practically inevitable not to notice the conceptualization this haunting piece of work proposes all along its twelve episodes. It certainly doesn't lack of initiative or argumentation, the instances to achieve uniqueness here are entitled by the individual execution of the instruments and the exploitation of the same. The piano and synthies taken away majestically by Tomas TUREK, the guitars and flute performing in charge of Jan SCHRÖDER and his creativeness and the additional features, obviate the mystery hidden on "Kadath".

When taking on the rest of the track listing, you might as well would like to pay close attention to the versatility and innovation displayed on such pieces as "Within the Vault" (that describes an intrepid way of playing piano) and "Reaching Kadath" (a deep, purist track, which contains most of the explanation of why the album was conceived in such way from the get-go). The alternativeness showed among "Nyarlathoteps Reception" and "Finale: Sunset City part 2", is definitely unforgivable to lose. The perception of oneself becomes thicker throughout the entireness of this album, according on getting yet another dosage of PAYNE'S GRAY right back from the beginning.

Part two of the productions released by the Germanic musicians, accomplishes quite great its mere intention and initial purpose. It's practically impossible not to relate this specific work to what's already been done by some other German progressive metal bands like SIEGES EVEN or SUPERIOR, since there's a thin line called "relativity" that unites them by the insides. In spite of the comparisons and the appealing characteristics, "Kadath" remains intact before the eyes of introspection and surprising. Deservedly, the four starts sustaining the "excellent addition to any prog collection" variation.

This album is one of few masterpiece albums for me. One of very few. This is not like in many progressive metal bands. Of course there is still metal, but... more then metal can give You :) First thing You shold take in your sight is the concept of vocalization. Two similiar sounding voices, but not the same in fact. Vocals are dancing together. Maybe someone, who looks for a more drived sound can feel disapointed, but for me those clean voices sounds briliant. Flute. Yes! In this album is flute too, and you can hear it in opening part. Great atmospheric music and making thoughts flowing to another world. To dreams made by H.P. Lovecraft. First there are boutiful dreams, but gradiently are becoming more nightmares. Story of searchin lost Kadath is great showed, I just can see it with my phones. I recomend to hear it, and I think it's impossible to know all masterpiece of this music from one track. It's just impossible. Sometimes music flows, and takes You to dreamland and then is becoming very very psychodelic. And everytime is just great! It's sad, that band will never more create such a briliant thing. I this case I realize that great art hides in shadows...

This album is for sure a masterpiece! The Album's concepts is based on H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath". All progmetal fans should look around how to get this album into their collections. Music is very melodic and sounds haunted. All musicians are doing great work. You should get the great epic track "Moonlight water's" which is linked above, to get a picture of how the band play. This is truly unique album, with give the way different look on prog metal music. There is a sad news. The band no longer exist, maybe in future they wolud come together again and give us more briliant music. Even if not, they left one of the best albums ever made. This is one of my desert island albums.